Worth replacing energy saving bulbs with LED?

Norman_Castle

CFL bulbs loose their brightness over time apparently up to 40% lost so changing them before they fail is often justifiable. I've changed most of mine despite having unused cfl bulbs due to the low cost and better light from LED bulbs.


Remember to recycle your old cfl bulbs properly.

Mistral001

Norman_Castle wrote: »

CFL bulbs loose their brightness over time apparently up to 40% lost so changing them before they fail is often justifiable. I've changed most of mine despite having unused cfl bulbs due to the low cost and better light from LED bulbs.


Remember to recycle your old cfl bulbs properly.

This is something I have always suspected. Good to have it confirmed.

One other advantage of LED bulbs is that the smaller wattages have some very compact versions such as the candle version.

grumbler

I'd be surprised if for the same light output a LED bulb was smaller.

stator

You should replace energy saving lamps with LEDs for the sake of your own sanity.


CFL are slow and flickery. Why wait?

grumbler

stator wrote: »

CFL are slow and flickery.

Mine aren't, although I don't need speed in the bedrooms where I hardly ever use them

Why wait?

To save money.
Personally, I am replacing them gradually when the old bulbs fail and I don't have spare ones left. Like for TVs, prices keep dropping sharply and the reliability gets better. I already had few LEDs that failed, so the declared (~10 years?) life is unrealistic (on average) IMO, except, possibly the most expensive bulbs.

Lizbetty

We replaced all our bulbs with LEDs and they are great, safer than halogen too if you have lights within kid's reach, as halogen get so hot. There was an incident recently where a halogen bulb in a bedside light had set fire to a blanket in a child's bedroom, grim reading

However...LED bulbs in our dimmers are a constant problem in our house, I understand getting the right dimmer light switch for the right bulb is the key. We've had LED bulbs explode in our kitchen fitting which has a dimmer! The light fitting was checked and it was ok, noone actually figured out what happened there. Also we have found that the claims re longevity haven't really applied, we often find LED bulbs have blown much sooner than they should have done. We have had a rewire too and so it's not a wiring issue, it's all been triple checked.

But I would still do it And keep the receipts just in case (which is what I should have done).

Lizbetty

grumbler wrote: »

I already had few LEDs that failed, so the declared (~10 years?) life is unrealistic (on average) IMO, except, possibly the most expensive bulbs.

We've tried the cheap and expensive LED bulbs, and I can testify that price doesn't seem to equal longevity unfortunately It does seem quite hit and miss. I agree that it feels like technology in progress! I wish I'd waited rather than buying special LED dimmer switch fittings (which were expensive!) as they're still not great. I think the Smart LED bulbs you can dim via the phone would have been more reliable by the sounds, and chances are they'll be even better and have more options in bulb type soon enough.

Lucy

sk240

I swapped all of my downstairs lighting from CFL to LED a couple of years ago just with the cheap pound shop bulbs, and all have been perfect.
I worked out that they paid for themselves in just over a year.
The other advantage is that they are instantly at full brightness compared to CFL which takes ages to warm up, which is actually why i kept CFL in the bedrooms so they are less of a shock when turned on at night.

poppellerant

The best thing I ever did was removing those horrid CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) energy saving bulbs and replacing them with LED bulbs. I'm not overkeen on the yellow 2700K temperatures and that 6500K bulbs feel rather clinical, because they are so white. For me the 4000K colour temperature is perfect.

My first LED bulb was a Paul Russells brand. I bought one as a tester and I was immediately pleased. So I bought some more in bulk. It was until a couple of months that they all either started to flicker or completely die. The eBay seller replaced every single one for free, but they went the same way too. So that is one brand I will never buy again. Reviews online show others have experienced similar results.